This invention relates to an automatic collating machine, and more particularly, to a machine for automatically organizing a flow of articles continuously fed to the machine into groups to be packaged into containers.
Numerous machines have been designed for automatically packaging a plurality of articles into individual containers which illustrate sundry methods of receiving the articles to be packaged, accumulating the articles, and arranging them into selected groups, such as rows, and moving the articles from place to place where each of the foregoing operations can be performed. Without detracting from the utility of known packaging or collating machines, it is observed that many, if not all of them, lack the versatility frequently required by the users of such machines, and due to the selected relative locations and imparted direction of article movement of the various article handling stations in such machines, they are often unduly complicated.
The various problem areas of known machines are too numerous to discuss here, but an exemplary illustration of some of the limitations and undue complications in particular machines can be had by an examination of U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,180 2,633,280 and 1,803,123. The general problem is of course to provide a simple, efficient, fast, inexpensive and versatile machine for automatically performing the above operations to achieve the desired packaging result.